Former DG IB Aftab Sultan appointed NAB chairman

ISLAMABAD: Former Director General (DG) of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) Aftab Sultan has been appointed as chairman National Accountability Bureau (NAB), ARY NEWS reported quoting sources.

According to sources, an agreement was reached between the leader of the House Shehbaz Sharif and the Leader of the Opposition Raja Riaz over the appointment. The federal cabinet has approved the appointment of the NAB chairman.

As per the records, Aftab Sultan belonged to the police service and retired in BPS-22. He remained appointed to the top slots including as intelligence bureau (IB) chief during PPP and PML-N tenures besides also serving as DIG Sargodha during Pervez Musharraf’s period.

He also remained suspended during Musharraf’s tenure.

A NAB reference was also approved against him and he remained a co-accused with former prime minister Nawaz Sharif over irregularity in buying vehicles in the name of the SAARC conference. The reference also included Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry and they were blamed for causing a loss of Rs1.95 billion to the national exchequer.

However, the reference was approved in 2020 but was never filed against them.

It is pertinent to mention here that Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal remained NAB chairman for four years and three months against his official tenure of four years following the passage of the National Accountability (Amendment) Ordinance that allowed him to occupy the slot until his successor takes charge.

A report previously stated federal government planned to appoint a former bureaucrat as chairman National Accountability Bureau (NAB) rather than appointing a judge for the slot.

Sources privy to the discussions on the matter said that a meeting took place between Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Opposition Leader Raja Riaz to consult over the matter.

“The two mulled over the names for the accountability watchdog’s chairman and initially discussed three names for the slot,” they said and added that the names discussed included former bureaucrat Fawad Hassan Fawad, ex-chairman NAB Qamar uz Zaman and former DG FIA Bashir Memon.